jgkojak wrote:1) It contains one of the 10 best Macca tunes of all time, Listen To What the Man Said. 2) It contains one the 5 great Macca vocal performances, Call Me Back Again3) Everything else on here is 4 star material- You Gave Me the Answer, Letting Go, Love in Song, the title track/Rock Show4) Even the worst track, Spirits..., would be celebrated if it were part of MAF or this record-- I'd say Spirits is on par with "Get Me Out of Here"5) I see it as the "last gasp" of Beatle McCartney - after VM, the songs and production seems more modern, some of the detail put into the production of every song (not just the singles) is lost.

Dim the lights and listen to the 5.1 version that came out a few years back (really just a tweaked Quad mix) - it will blow your mind.

See, listening to it when Rockshow came back out in the summer, it just came across as hugely lazy, pot-addled and unfocused. Apart from the opener (which is spoiled on the LP by the weedy production on Rockshow), Call me back and Listen... it just is almost insultingly tossed-off. For me, the fact that all the live versions (bar Listen...) are superior speaks volumes. It's exhibit A for the Lazy Paul prosecution

May sweet memories of friends from the pastAlways comes to you, when you look for them

Mr. H, I have to say, although I don't play V & M more than BOTR (I haven't played V & M-- with the exception of a couple of tracks-- in YEARS), I tend not to play BOTR much, anymore, either. Mostly because I probably played it five million times in the first two months It was released. After coming off the miserable RED ROSE SPEEDWAY, I heard a glimmer of hope on the radio one night in the form of "Helen Wheels." Then, one day, going thru the racks at the record store at the Mall, I came across BAND ON THE RUN. I had no idea he was even working on an album (I was 15 then, there was no social media, and things weren't as immediate and plastered all over everywhere the second it was done), never mind releasing one! I grabbed it, brought it home, played it, and by the middle of "Jet" (the second song, as we all know), I was flabbergasted!

I then basically sat in my room and played the album over and over and over again.

Then, of course, it had THREE big singles ("Helen Wheels," sorry, was on it, the American version, it was a hit, and for the purists, too bad-- to me, that was one of the highlights of BOTR)-- "Helen Wheels," "Jet," and the title track-- played incessantly on the radio for the next year.

Then, over the years, I'd listen to it frequently.

40 years later, however, I think I've overplayed it. I can appreciate songs from it ("Mamunia" is one I frequently use to put on playlists, as is "Helen Wheels," and "Mrs. Vandebilt"), but can't play it from beginning to end. Perhaps that will change if I stay away from it enough.

in years to come/they may discover/what the air we breathe and the life we lead are all about/but it won't be soon enough for me

i'm thinking that BTTE was my first day'n date...the 'i-know-you're-coming-out-and-i'm-gonna-be-there-for-that': as a huge stepehen king fan...i'd become 'aware' of there being a 'release date'

before that, i know i bought 'LT' within a month or so of its release...all others previous were bought whenever...

as for BOTR ?

well...while i have never played it incessantly..others around me sure did..and you're 100% right about the radio play it and those songs got...love the lp...but i just prefer a bit more adventure from me macca...all in all, it, like Chaos is really nice, very solid but pretty staid

V&M, on the other hand was a rollicky, cheesy blast !

still is...

can't say i'm with you on RRS...i did feel that way, for the longest time, about both it and WL (still do about WATSOS and POP) ...but i got my stuck-in-the-mud head a kindly whisper or two..and, at more more advanced age (well...a few years back, at least) i reapproached them with an open mind and i was more than pleasantly surprised...

each of these albums are their own animal...and i'm always willing to listen to a good lion tamer to get some pointers

I suppose I should re-evaluate the CD's that have been collecting dust for awhile (LT, BTTE, SOS, even V & M, etc). I think I'm waiting for the remastered, bonus track versions that Paul seems to have stopped in mid-stream.

When they come out all new and shiny sounding, I will definitely give them an open minded listen.

in years to come/they may discover/what the air we breathe and the life we lead are all about/but it won't be soon enough for me

don't know how this thread morphed into a discussion on V&M but...I used to hold it in much higher regard than I do now. i think there are some great tracks on it. V&M/rockshow is nearly BOTR good to me...letting go...listen to what...and yeah, i love call me back again.

it has fallen not because i realized it wasn't as good as i thought (although nostalgia does seem to want to push it higher than it should be) but it has just been surpassed by better, newer albums released since.

but...JG...what a nice review of the new album. thank you for that.

I want to tell her that I love her a lot, but I got to get a belly full of wine.

If I could weigh in a little on the Venus and Mars debate, I would say that, though I have always liked the album, there is and alwayshas been a problem with it. I think it's partly to do with the sound of it: I would say that it's not a particularly well-recorded album.The production seems lumpy, a bit dark, then a bit too trebly. There are songs on V & M I really like, but it's a hard album to love!Love in Song is great, while You gave me the Answer is just another example of Paul's absurd ability to create a great melody but...its just too fluffy!

I haven't heard NEW yet, but Queenie Eye is a truly great track, a real tour-de-force.

Very much looking forward to hearing the whole work....

So I stood with a knot in my stomach,And I gazed at that terrible sightOf two youngsters concealed in a barrel,Sucking monkberry moon delight.

GARRYSTANTON, agree with your analysis of Venus & Mars re: it's sound, and production. Thin sounding, soft sounding, trebly...why does Rock Show sound so hard and ballsy live, yet the studio version sounds like the band were playing instruments and using equipment from the Beatles Hamburg days?

Letting Go, aside from some really bad lyrics (sorry, it just has lousy lyrics), not only sounds like a bad ripoff of Let Me Roll It, but it also seems to have a floating, soft, unsettling quality, which would be great if it were supposed to be a trippy, psychedelic track, but it's supposed to be a rocker! Again, the live version destroys the recorded version.

I've already vented on this album. I'll stop now. People like the album. I don't want to offend those who feel differently.

in years to come/they may discover/what the air we breathe and the life we lead are all about/but it won't be soon enough for me

Welcome Garry, feel free to rip Macca to shreds like some folks here or to appreciate his music like others! Regarding your assertion that Venus and Mars has a poor sound, I agree. I would go so far as to say maybe it sounds rushed? The songs are great, so I can overlook some of the recording flaws, but this album could use not a remaster but a remix.